Immanent criticism
Immanent criticism is a fundamental hermeneutical process of dealing with philosophical texts , works of art and the like, in which the object is subjected to a criticism based on its own means, concepts and figures of thought as well as their performativity .
In contrast to standpoint criticism, in which the criticism opposes the text with a different position, immanent criticism is an examination of the argumentation of an existing position in the criticized text. For example, inadmissible conclusions, inadequate justifications for a thesis or contradictions and inconsistencies in a theory are shown. Immanent criticism is widespread in philosophy today, but it is especially considered an important moment in critical theory .
Different philosophers are repeatedly given as authors and founders. Popper is said to have adopted Adorno's method of immanent criticism . Adorno in turn was inspired in this regard by Hegel's immanent phenomenology of the mind . Ultimately, however, it is a very old method of philosophy. Among other things, Baruch de Spinoza dealt with the problems of the interpretation of texts in 1677 and established principles: "The main rule of the interpretation of scriptures is that one should not ascribe any teaching to scripture that does not result with complete clarity from its history" .
A well-known example of the consistent “assessment of works by their immanent criteria” is Walter Benjamin's book On the Critique of Violence .
Immanent criticism can be described as a method of deconstruction , but it differs from Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of immanence .
literature
- Baruch de Spinoza (1677): Theological-political treatise. (there: From the interpretation of Scripture)
- Robert J. Antonio (1981): Immanent Critique as the Core of Critical Theory: Its Origins and Developments in Hegel, Marx and Contemporary Thought. In: The British Journal of Sociology. Volume 32, No. 3, pp. 330-345.
- Jean-François Lyotard (1987): The Controversy. Munich.
- Marcus Hawel (2008): The ideology-critical process of immanent criticism. Goethe-Institut, Munich ( online ( Memento from December 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )).
- José M. Romero (ed.) (2014): Immanent Criticism Today . Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag. Publishing site
- Titus Stahl (2013): Immanent Criticism. Elements of a theory of social practices. Frankfurt am Main, Campus. Publishing site
- Martin Weißmann (2017): How immanent is immanent criticism? Sociological objections to consistency as an ideal of social criticism . In: Journal of Sociology. Volume 46, No. 6, pp. 381-401. Link to the full text